WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1928, Page 12

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE HALF LOAF. ON SECOND THOUGHTS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, October 8. “After the lengthy arguments put forward earlier in the session why Mr. Sidey’s extra hour of daylight could not become law,” says the Dominion this morning, “it came as a mild shock to watch a Government Summer Time Bill quietly slip through Parliament without any serious difficulty.” So faithful a friend of the Government could scarcely have said less, or more. Mr. J. C. Rolleston, the member for Waitomo, was the only Reformer in the House with courage enough to say he was still against meddling with ' the clock. Mr. Glenn, the member for Rangitikei, another stalwart opponent of- “Summer Time,” wanted only- “a little more information,” and Mr. Field, the member for Otaki, had persuaded himself the farmers would not be angry over “an acceptable compromise.” As for the rest, the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, in reply to an interjection, admitted that the Bill had been “considered by the Reform Party in caucus,” and the Opposition benches smiled the smile of sweet content. The big battalions in the constituencies had obtained the half-loaf with every prospect of securing their full ration next year. THE FULL HOUR. The Evening Post welcomes the compromise only as a step towards the full hour.' “Many supporters of ‘Summer Time,’” it says, “doubt the wisdom of the half hour’s compromise which the House of Representatives has accepted. We can understand their view. Acceptance of a compromise must always involve some loss of tactical advantage. Had Parliament refused to concede the half hour, feeling in the urban electorates would have been most marked, and candidates at the General Election would have had the subject brought prominently under their notice. The half-hour concession will, in a measure, lessen the resentment. This does not mean, however, that the people will accept the compromise as a permanency. It should be clearly understood that it is acceptable only because the rejection of Mr. Sidey’s two previous Bills made it impossible to obtain more this summer.” The people, the Post thinks, will recognise this and will hot allow such complications to hinder them from pressing for the whole loaf next year under more propitious conditions.' PUBLIC TRUST AND LIQUOR. Had Sir Robert Stout and his allies in the Legislative Council directed their attack against some of the services undertaken by the Public Trust Office, instead of against the Public Trustee himself, they might have obtained a more sympathetic hearing from their fellow councillors. The Trustee, poor man, has to administer such estates as are lawfully committed to his care, and if they happen to include hotels and breweries he has no alternative to giving effect to the law as made and provided. Whether or not the law is always desirable is another question, and quite like- I ly Sir Robert Stout’s protest may lead to the position being seriously reviewed by the Legislature. The Bight Hon Sir Francis Bell, the leader of tlie council, implied as much as this, when he stated that had had Sir Robert omitted from motion some allusion to the Public Trustee he would have have been able to give it his cordial support. It certainly seems a little incongruous that a country tending towards “prohibition” for thirty years should be actively engaged in the liquor business. CLOSE OF SESSION. Both Houses of Parliament were busy on Saturday with the “cleaning up” process which seems inseparable, from the, closing of every session, and to-day they are involved in the same hustle and haste. Bills which at the beginning of the session would have passed through the two Houses with leisurely decorum, have been pushed through all their stages in less time than it would take to read them, to say nothing of understanding them. Many members ..will leave for their homes, north and south, to-night, leaving tlie next twenty-four hours to take care of themselves, and I to-morrow the session will close. It is the way, of course, of every Parliament and every session, but each election year hustle and haste seem to increase in intensity. The parties are exchanging courtesies to-day, but next week they will be immersed in the most strenuous campaign in which they have engaged since- 1911. The general prediction is that the Government will return with a majority of eight or ten, but Labour talks confidently of having the largest party in the new Parliament, and qbviously believes what it says.